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In July of 2002 I, Archie Maestas, decided to depart ways with Cuarenta Y Cinco, after having played the drums with them for six years, to pursue a more challenging career in music.  A co-worker and good friend of mine ,Rubel Baca, encouraged me to start another New Mexico style band and gave me an idea to get Steve Garcia, the lead guitar player and good friend of mine, who had also played with Cuarenta Y Cinco for four years and had departed three years prior, and to get Lionel Agoyo, lead guitar player, who was a roadie and had sang two Shaggy songs: Angel and It wasn't me, with Cuarenta Y Cinco for two years, who also departed ways from the band in July of 2002, and start playing together.  Lionel Agoyo is a very talented guitar player that can play any style of music, but had never been given the opportunity to play with any of the local bands.  I mentioned to Rubel that my brother-in-law ,Bobby Salazar, had a very talented voice.      I mentioned to him that three years prior, Bobby and myself had gone to the mountains and got stuck in the snow in his truck, and while waiting for my dad to come pull us out, we were listening to "The Purple Haze" and Bobby began singing along with them.  I discovered that he had a very talented voice.  In the fall of 2002, Steve, Lionel and myself got together and convinced Bobby to sing with us, in my jam room, some "Purple Haze" music.  "The Purple Haze" had been one of our biggest influences in New Mexico music.  They were a band that dominated the New Mexico scene from the early seventies to the early eighties, and their legend carries on through some of todays local bands.  We started playing with two guitars, the drums, vocals, but no bass yet.       In October of 2002, George Griego, bass player/ background vocalist, and co-founding member of Cuarenta Y Cinco, gave me a call and mentioned he had also departed ways with the band to pursue a more challenging musical career.  I told George we had started a New Mexico style band and that we needed a bass player and asked him to come to one of our practices, and he agreed.  George rehearsed with us, liked what we were playing, and thats how "Orgullo - The Pride Of Northern New Mexico" was formed.  We all decided to work as a team being that Steve, Lionel, George and myself, had all been friends and had played together with the prior band, and Bobby fit right in.      We feel more relaxed and more challenged in this band and we hope everyone out there in New Mexico will enjoy our music as long as we are around.  We have recorded our first CD as "Orgullo - The Pride Of Northern New Mexico" which is "Purple Passion".  We would like to thank Grupo Chimayo and Louie Martinez of Valiente for providing the sound system while we were without one, and also, The Blue Ventures de Luis Sanchez for giving us a chance to perform with them.  We would also like to offer our help to any other rising New Mexico artists.  We all thank Joshua Maestas (Archies brother) for putting together our website and designing our posters and Carl Atencio senior for taking our group pictures when we started.  The name "Orgullo - The Pride Of Northern New Mexico" was the idea of Rubel and Archie.  "Orgullo", meaning Pride in english, is something that we ,as a band, have in our music and in ourselves, living in Northern New Mexico.  The CD "Purple Passion" was released in June 2003. In late June, 2004, the second CD "Asi Me Voy" was released, featuring four originals and featuring former member, David Garcia, on sax and Bobby Madrid on trumpet on "Asi Me Voy" and "Dime Senor".  In June 2004, Brian Garcia, former drummer of Young Guns, joined Orgullo as the new sax player/vocals. In August 2004, trumpet player Joseph Gonzales, formerly of Young Guns, joined Orgullo, completing our brass section.   In February 2005 rythym guitar player, Steven Lucero, joined Orgullo after the departure of Lionel Agoyo.             In 2007, Archie Maestas will be opening a recording studio and will be releasing a solo CD.  Keep an eye out for his solo debut!